


You Say You Want A Revolution

by heartshapedcookie, heereandqueer



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: M/M, Mentions of Gun Violence, a lil short fic following teenage hanna, just mentions it, nothing graphic, this talks about the parkland school shooting so be aware
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 15:15:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13883538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartshapedcookie/pseuds/heartshapedcookie, https://archiveofourown.org/users/heereandqueer/pseuds/heereandqueer
Summary: A tribute to every kid out there raising up against our evil government, and making their voices heard. We hear you, we are with you, and we want you to make the world better for you.





	You Say You Want A Revolution

**Author's Note:**

> I don't like this one bit but im trying it out! i havent written in over two months so stay with me  
> chris came up with this idea, i just wrote it down

Ethan hadn’t watched this much news since the _2016_ election. Here he sat, on the very edge of the couch, directly in front of the television. His heart feels  _ 10  _ times too heavy for his chest, his throat tight and burning. When Ben gets home, the two share the same fearful expression as no words come out of either of their mouths. Ben just simply situates himself next to Ethan, hand instantly grabbing his as his eyes gaze over the news crawl at the bottom of the screen. Florida school shooting. 17 dead, more injured. 

The low thump of music could be heard from Hanna’s room down the hall, she had been in there getting ready to go out to dinner with a few of her friends for Valentine’s Day. She didn’t know that when she walked out to leave, that her dads were going to kindly ask her not to go out tonight. Sure she was kinda bummed, but seeing her usually anti-news Abba glued to the spot, she decided not to argue it out this time. 

The following week was similar, Hanna missing school the last two days of school without questioning it. She was a sophomore, and not a dumb kid, so she knew what her dads were doing when they made up little excuses for keeping her home. Seeing them so.. afraid was new to her. The only time she had seen the same look of terror on Ethan’s face was when she was about six when a group of cops ran by them in the park and her dad completely froze.

When the weekend rolled around, Hanna had found her own spot in the living room. Every second for the next two days she was curled up in their old recliner, one of their animals usually at her feet as she watched news anchor after news anchor interview kids  _ her age _ about the trauma they had been through. By the time it was Monday morning, she had a constant knot in her stomach as she zips her backpack up and pulled on her beaten up converse. 

For the first time since _7th_ grade Ethan had driven her to school, and Hanna pretended not to notice the hesitation as he unlocked the doors for her to get out. 

“Have a good day Mami, remember what I said about texting me?” Ethan had rolled down the window, leaning down to talk to her as she stood on the curb of her high school. 

He had asked her to text him every hour, and to call if she wanted to come home at any point, no questions asked. Hanna knew it was more for his benefit than hers, but she nodded anyway as she toed at the crack in the sidewalk where weeds had started to sprout.

“I know Abba, I will I promise.” Throwing her hand up, she shot tight-lipped smiled and a thumbs up before tapping the door of the car twice and bouncing her way up the steps to the busy front doors. The really heavy, really thick,  _ really secure _ front doors. 

School was awkward for a few days, to say the least. Everyone was on edge, one girl even yelled in biology when the teacher dropped a book with a loud bang. Hanna had remembered to text Ethan every time he had asked, and he was so appreciative for it but it didn’t help ease his racing heart. He felt tight chested until the second she would toss her backpack in the back seat.

 

-

 

Hanna had overheard Ben and Ethan talking in the kitchen on Friday night when they thought she was doing homework. 

“This time is different babe, something about this time feels like things are actually getting done.” Ben’s voice gentle, and hopeful for the first time in a while. Ethan’s reply was too quiet for Hanna to hear completely, but she does catch  _ ‘scared-’ _ and her own name. 

“Hey dads? I’m going to work in my room,” Hanna was gathering her things and kicking her door closed gently behind her. Then she got to work, just… not on that dumb geometry homework.

It started with a shirt, she sat on the floor of her tiny bedroom and painted the names of all  _ 17  _ victims onto an old t-shirt. It didn’t take her long, hanging it in her closet to dry as she peaked back out to tell her dads goodnight (she was far from going to sleep tonight, but they didn’t need to know that. She wasn’t sure this was going to even work, and she wasn’t sure how they would react to this. Hanna didn’t want them to try and stop her, because as much as she loves and respects her fathers, she was going to do this with or without their permission.)

Hanna got busy using the skills she had learned from years of watching her dad write articles, and wrote a speech. Her best friend, Carmen, had said she should speak since ‘this was all her idea.’ Who was she to turn that down? And if she doesn’t speak, what if no one else does either? Voices had to be heard, so she was more than happy to put hers out there. When she finished writing it, her clock had just hit  _ 2  _ am. ‘ _ Ah shit’ _ , her hands hurt so bad from the typing, but it’s finished. One more read over and she sends it to her printer. 

Now it came down to the gathering of people for this protest. Hanna wouldn’t say she was particularly cool or popular, but she did know a wide range of people at her school for a sophomore, and was hoping that the word could get around fast. This was harder than she had hoped, but little did she know that when Monday rolled around and she showed up at school, that there would be a huge group of at least two-thirds of the students at her school (along with some staff) would be standing in the middle of the quad instead of in first period. 

This was the first day since the shooting that Ethan and Ben had let Hanna walk to school on her own, but that didn’t stop the nervous, watchful eyes on her when she left. 

Hanna recognized most of the faces, but there were some stragglers who she had yet to see on her campus before. Still, grateful they had come out here. She was shocked into a statue, until her favorite history teacher was suddenly in front of her, talking to her for a second before Hanna tuned back into her words in time to catch “We wanna hear you talk, Carmen said you had something prepared?”

Mrs. Alger was speaking loud, a smile on her face as she wore a maroon ‘NEVER AGAIN’ t-shirt. This was the first time Hanna was nervous about the speech she had written. What if it wasn’t as good as it needed to be? She wasn’t the best with words like her dad, the way his writing could captivate anyone in and make them believe anything he said. 

She wouldn’t necessarily say that she was shy, but she also wasn’t too great when it came to public speaking. Hanna definitely inherited her Abba’s skills in that area, having none of her Dad’s smooth confidence whenever he was invited on a news special to report or commentate. Either way, Hanna stood up on the bench that some of the kids had been sitting around, all  _ 5’2  _ of her looking over the still growing crowd. 

After a minute of trying to get everyone’s attention, Hanna projected her voice as loud as she could when she spoke, paying no mind (or as little as she could) to the kids with their phones up recording her. She tried to ignore the shaking of her hands, her paper crinkled a bit from the nervous tick she had of rubbing it between her fingers. ‘Here it goes. Say what you need to say.’

“Go Hanna!” a voice yelled from the crowd, and that’s all the push it took for her words to start spilling out of her mouth.

“Uh, this is the first time I’ve ever done something like this, so please forgive me if I stutter-” 

-

Back in the cubicle farm of Ben’s office, a group of writers and reporters were at the wall of televisions on one wall. He took his time making his way over, a little scared of what he would find. A gathering there was never usually for any good news.

“Isn’t that your daughter?” An intern said as he approached, Ben’s eyes already on the local news channel before him.

_ “Oh my god.” _

-

“Trump has taken  _ 30 _ . _ 3 _ million dollars from the NRA. The United States only makes up five percent of the population of the world, but we are responsible for more than thirty percent of the worlds mass shootings. Twenty seven  _ million  _ guns were bought and sold in the year  _ 2016 _ .” Hanna’s eyes weren’t coming off of her paper, her voice still a bit shaky. 

“The reason that I’m reading you these numbers is because that’s all the government seems to see us as anymore. They don’t see us as children, children who go to movies on weekends and study for math tests and dye our hair. We’re dollar signs and we’re percentages and most of all we’re body counts to them.

“Somewhere along they way from the moment we are conceived to the moment we are born, all they seem to care about is our life. That’s why they fight so hard to make it illegal to have abortions right? But when we’re actually born? And brought into the world? Why then do they stop caring about the safety of our lives? Why then, do we turn from human beings, to nothing to them. Huh? When did I go from being a child, to being a shooting range target?

“They expect us- the generation born during 9/11, who know nothing but death tolls and terrorists, to just sit back while they let us get picked off one by one by a psycho with a gun? You make us come to school, to learn how your government works every day. You tell us we’re special and will change the world if we put our minds to it. You give us books that show kids overthrowing corrupt governments to take control back from the evil inside of them. But now you’re surprised by the way we are speaking out?”

Her voice is louder now, stronger, and she’s no longer looking down at her paper but instead at the faces of her fellow students and teachers.

“At what point are you going to stop letting innocent children get caught on the deadly end of a gun?! At what point are we going to be able to go to school without the fear of ours being the next target?! At what point are we allowed to feel safe again?! At what point?!” Hanna’s yelling now, and she knows without looking that her face is bright red as she’s forcing herself not to cry. Not now.

“Cameron Kasky, Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Jaclyn Corin, Sarah Chadwick, and every other student and survivor who is working their  _ asses  _ off to finally get some things changed around here: We are here to help, say the words and we will do whatever you need. You have our complete support. We will continue to make our voices heard all over the country until changes are finally made.”

Hanna takes a second to look back down at the last piece of paper in her hand, before crinkling it up in her hands. 

“We deserve a better future, and that’s what we’re gonna get whether these old white guys in office like it or not. We are coming for you, we will vote you out, we control this now. Not you. So be. Fucking. Ready.” She took a deep breath, nodding. “Thank you, thanks for listening.”

With that, she hopped down from the short wall she had been standing on. The second her feet hit the ground, she was crowded with hugs and tears and people yelling kind words and thanks her way. 

 

-

 

“Babe, are you watching this- oh my god!” Ethan’s voice was booming through the other end of the phone, kind of distant though and Ben could tell he was on speaker.

“Of course I am, are you going to get her or am I?” Ben himself was still standing right in front of the TV, watching a replay of part of Hanna’s speech.

“I’m going down there, meet us at home.” 

That’s all it took for Ben to hang up, not bothering to grab anything on his way out and waving down a taxi.

 

-

 

“I’m sorry, I swore, I’m really sorry,” Was the first thing out of Hanna’s mouth when Ethan jogged up the stairs of her school to meet her. Her eyebrows were raised a bit, a little nervous (very nervous) about the reaction she was about to get from her dad.

“Hanna Garcia, for once I don’t care” Ethan pulled her to his chest, glad to have her back with him. “Your speech was amazing.” 

“You really think so?” Hanna kind of tucked her head a bit as Ethan began to lead her back to the car. After her speech she had been told that there was a news crew there, and didn’t wanna get caught to talk to any of them again. There had already been four of them who had stopped her for interviews. 

Ethan got the door for her,  _ “Of course.” _

There was a few minutes of silence as they inched out of the traffic filled road and head back to their apartment. “Did Daddy see it too?” Hanna’s voice was small, her eyes trained on the passing buildings out of the front windshield.

“He did, everyone at his work did.” 

“Oh,” and that was the end of the talking until they pulled up. It took only seconds for the two to reach their door, Hanna taking the keys with her to unlocked the door first.

“Daddy?” She dropped her backpack in the doorway, making her way to the small living room where she was yet again pulled into her father's chest.

“ _ I’m so proud of you _ ,” Ben’s voice was close to a whisper, leaving a soft kiss on the top of her head as he hugged her tight. Their extreme height difference never mattered, Hanna’s arms instantly going around his waist to hug back.

“I’m not as good at writing as you are, but I thought it went okay? I didn’t say all I wanted to- I probably should have stayed longer after, and I already apologized to Abba about the swearing! And-” she was rambling now, pulling back to look up at him as she spoke.

“Bug, hey- okay breathe.” he’s laughing a bit, picking up on the nervous rambling habit she picked up from Ethan. “It was perfect, I just wish you’d told us you were going to do that. We would have come with you.”

“I didn’t… I don’t know, for some reason I thought you guys wouldn’t want me to do it.” Hanna really didn’t know her own thought process behind it, and now she wishes she had had them there to cheer her on in the crowd.

“We will never, ever,  _ ever  _ get in the way of you voicing your thoughts like that. I’m a reported for god's sake, it’s what I do and get paid to do. We’ve been taking you to rallies and marches since you could sit up on your own. We are behind you every time,  _ 100 _ %, no matter the situation. Okay?” Ben looked behind her at his husband to make sure he felt the same, and of course he did, nodding back at Ben with a smile on his face.

The rest of the night was spent with the three of them back on the couch, Hanna had her legs thrown over Ethans as she leaned into Ben. They watched the news for a bit longer before deciding it was time to put on something uplifting and put a movie on.

Two boxes of pizza and an hour of talking over the movie, the three of them (along with the animals sprawled out on the floor) were passed out on the couch. The next morning would bring the boys complaining about their backs, Hanna answering phone call after phone call about her speech yesterday and barely making it to school on time, and Cooper stealing a pancake off of the coffee table when no one was looking.

Hanna knew that she was on a good track, planning things for weeks and months away (even talking Ben into flying with her to Washington DC in March), even creating an activism club at her school. The boys listening to her talk every night at dinner, and even though it was similar to Ethan hearing his husband speak about work and he was confused a lot, they hung on every word that came out of her mouth. Neither quite sure how they had raised such a smart and incredible daughter.

**Author's Note:**

> tunglr - > @connormurphweed


End file.
